Transition

Transition Tasmania

What is Transition? Transition Tasmania is a community response to peak oil and climate change. From the Transition Tasmania website “Something very powerful is stirring and is taking root the world over. Transition Tasmania is about making our communities resilient, by getting to know our neighbours, strengthening our local economies, growing our food locally, restructuring our transport system and developing alternative energy sources so that we can enjoy a sustainable lifestyle when fuel costs rise beyond our budgets”. Go to Transition Tasmania to find out more! Or see what’s happening in the rest of Australia or worldwide.

We have held two introductory workshops at Wynyard and Sheffield, which were well attended and gave people much food for thought in addressing peak oil and climate change. The final two day workshop “Training for Transition – building the movement for change” was held recently at Camp Clayton in the northwest of the state. This was a complement to previous training events held in Hobart (2009) and Launceston (2010). An enthusiastic group of 18 individuals were immersed in a range or facilitated activities, skill building exercises and fun games (thanks Christian) with the aim of enhancing transition endeavours in their region. There were several highlights to share with you.

In contrast to previous workshops the introduction included a portion of the Changing the Dream Symposium. This was considered a very powerful way for people to reconnect with the deeply held reasons why they are working for change and for some it ignited a passion for addressing the urgent challenges we face. A dedicated training weekend for Changing the Dream Symposium facilitators is being held on the last weekend in May.

We spent some time exploring the range of groups that already exist or are forming in the face of looming social, economic and ecological threats. In brief it is evident that we are all a part of a rapidly growing movement for change in Tasmania. One of the key information resources worth sharing is the Peak Oil Tasmania website www.peakoiltas.org

There were also opportunities to discuss some of the challenging elements of developing Transition initiatives. The Energy Descent Action Plans (EDAP) were among this and it was acknowledged that the garden groups, the home craft groups have wide appeal and often easy to form, yet few groups have managed to create the same level of appeal around developing an EDAP (one of the key purposes for Transition) for their region. From this discussion it was felt that a useful step would be to bring together individuals from several groups who are interested in the dynamics of creating an EDAP. Please contact me if you would like to explore this further.

The lead facilitator for the weekend was Margaret Steadman and the event was made possible through a micro grant from the Tasmanian Climate Change Office.

Comments about other similar workshops include “this two day journey holds for many key insights, understanding, and awarenesses to help them to contribute to the most important journey of our times; the journey to a peaceful and resilient world.

“Our intention in offering this training is to inspire, encourage, and inform people who wish to undertake Transition”.